USS San Jacinto (1850)
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 The San Jacinto (right) stops the RMS Trent | |
| History | |
|---|---|
  United States | |
| Name | USS San Jacinto |
| Builder | New York Navy Yard |
| Laid down | August 1847 |
| Launched | 16 April 1850 |
| Commissioned | late 1851/early 1852 |
| Fate | Ran aground, 1 January 1865 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type | Screw frigate[1] |
| Tonnage | 1567 |
| Length | 234 ft (71 m) |
| Beam | 37 ft 9 in (11.51 m) |
| Draft | 16 ft 6 in (5.03 m) |
| Depth of hold | 23 ft 3 in (7.09 m) |
| Propulsion | Steam engine, screw propeller |
| Speed | 8 knots (15 km/h; 9.2 mph) |
| Complement | 235 officers and enlisted[1] |
| Armament | 6 × 8 in (200 mm) Smoothbore guns[1] |
| General characteristics 1862 | |
| Armament |
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| General characteristics Dec 1863 | |
| Armament |
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The first USS San Jacinto was an early screw frigate in the United States Navy during the mid-19th century. She was named for the San Jacinto River, site of the Battle of San Jacinto during the Texas Revolution. She is perhaps best known for her role in the Trent Affair of 1861.
San Jacinto was laid down by the New York Navy Yard in August 1847 and launched on 16 April 1850. She was sponsored by Commander Charles H. Bell, Executive Officer of the New York Navy Yard.
No record of San Jacinto's commissioning ceremony has been found, but her first commanding officer, Captain Thomas Crabbe, reported aboard on 18 November 1851. The earliest page of the ship's log which has survived is dated 26 February 1852, but San Jacinto's service began earlier. Some evidence suggests that the frigate got under way for test runs late in 1851.
Built as an experimental ship to test new propulsion concepts, the screw frigate was plagued by balky engines and unreliable machinery throughout her career.[2] Yet, San Jacinto crowded her record with interesting and valuable service.
The steamer sailed from New York on New Year's Day, 1852, and headed for Norfolk, Virginia on a trial voyage to test her seaworthiness and machinery before heading across the Atlantic for service in the Mediterranean Sea. She encountered heavy weather during the passage to Hampton Roads, and one of her engines was disabled. After repairs at the Norfolk Navy Yard, the frigate finally passed between the Virginia Capes on 3 March and headed for Cádiz, Spain. However, chronic engine problems hampered the ship during her operations in European waters; and she returned to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on 5 July 1853. She was decommissioned there on the 13th for installation of new machinery.
Four days after recommissioning on 5 August 1854, San Jacinto sailed eastward to try her new engines. Following repairs at Southampton, England, she resumed her cruise in European waters.
Home Squadron and West Indies Squadron, 1855
In the spring of 1855, San Jacinto was briefly attached to the Home Squadron and served in the West Indies Squadron as flagship for Commodore Charles S. McCauley to bolster American naval strength in the Caribbean after Spanish frigate, Ferrolana, had fired upon United States mail steamer, El Dorado, off the coast of Cuba. When no further cause of friction between the two countries developed, San Jacinto returned home and decommissioned at New York on 21 June 1855 for repairs.
East Indian Squadron, 1855–1859
Recommissioned on 4 October 1855, the screw frigate, now commanded by Captain Henry H. Bell, departed New York on the 25th and headed for the Far East as flagship of Commodore James Armstrong. After proceeding via Madeira, the Cape of Good Hope, Mauritius, and Ceylon, the ship arrived at Penang in the Straits of Malacca on 22 March 1856.
There, Townsend Harris, the recently appointed Consul General to Japan, embarked on 2 April; and the ship got underway that morning for Siam. After a four-day stop at Singapore, where Commodore Armstrong relieved Commodore Joel Abbot in command of the East India Squadron, the frigate reached the bar off the mouth of the Me Nam (later the Chao Phraya) River on the 13th. A few days later, Harris ascended the Me Nam to Bangkok where he negotiated a treaty establishing diplomatic and commercial relations between the United States and Siam. The King of Siam at the time was Mongkut, who was later the subject of the musical comedy, The King and I.
After succeeding in this delicate diplomatic mission, Harris returned on the morning of 1 June to San Jacinto, which awaited him at the mouth of the Me Nam; and the frigate departed Siam to carry Harris to his new post in Japan.
However, after only half an hour of steaming, engine trouble reappeared and plagued the ship throughout her painfully slow passage to Hong Kong, which she finally reached on the 13th. There, major repairs interrupted the voyage for almost two months.
San Jacinto finally got underway again on 12 August. While proceeding by the Pescadores toward Formosa, she assisted several junks recently disabled by a violent typhoon which had devastated much of the coast of China. The ship at long last reached Shimoda, Japan, on 21 August and remained there while Harris was negotiating with Japanese officials concerning the establishment of his consulate—the first official foreign diplomatic office to be permitted on Japanese soil. During his subsequent service as Consul General, Harris persuaded the Japanese government to sign a commercial treaty which opened the country to American trade and hastened the westernization and industrial development of Japan.
On 4 September 1856, after a party from the ship had erected a flagpole in front of the new consulate and had helped Harris to raise the Stars and Stripes there for the first time, San Jacinto weighed anchor and headed for Shanghai.
Early in October 1856, mounting hostility toward foreigners in China erupted into the Second Opium War. Later that month, word of the fighting between British and Chinese forces at Canton reached Commodore Armstrong at Shanghai, and he proceeded in San Jacinto to the scene of the conflict. When he reached the Pearl River, he learned that Comdr. Andrew H. Foote, in response to a request for help from the United States consul at Canton, had landed a force of 150 men at Whampoa to protect American lives and property.
Armstrong approved of Foote's action and reinforced the shore party with a detachment from San Jacinto. A few days later, after receiving assurances from Chinese officials, the Commodore decided to withdraw the American force.
However, on 15 November, while Foote was passing the barrier forts in a small boat during preparations for reembarkation, Chinese guns fired upon him four or five times. The next day, Portsmouth closed the nearest fort and opened fire, beginning a vigorous engagement which continued until the Chinese batteries were silenced some two hours later. Meanwhile, efforts were begun to settle the matter by diplomatic means. Nevertheless, four days later, after receiving a report that the Chinese were strengthening their works, Armstrong again ordered his ships to open fire. They bombarded the two nearest forts until the enemy fire slackened. Then Foote led about 300 men ashore, took the first fort, and used the 53 guns captured there to silence hostile batteries in the next fort. The bluejackets and marines ashore subsequently beat off an attack by 3,000 Chinese soldiers from Canton. In the following two days, they first silenced and then took the three remaining forts. In all, they seized and spiked 176 cannon. Before the American ships departed Canton, their men had destroyed these riverside strongholds. During the fighting, negotiations with Chinese officials continued and resulted in the recognition of the rights of the United States as a neutral power.
Thereafter, San Jacinto served in Chinese ports for more than a year, principally at Hong Kong and Shanghai. After protecting American interests in the troubled waters of the Far East into 1858, the veteran steam frigate returned home on 4 August and decommissioned two days later.
African Squadron, 1859–1861
Over ten months in ordinary followed before San Jacinto was recommissioned on 6 July 1859, for service in the Africa Squadron to help suppress the slave trade. The following spring, 1860, she proceeded to Cádiz, Spain, for repairs. After returning to the west coast of Africa, she captured the brig, Storm King, on 8 August 1860, 200 miles off the mouth of the Congo River. A prize crew led by Lieutenant A. K. Hughes from the steam frigate sailed the captured slaver to Monrovia and turned 619 freed people (160 men, 130 women, 261 boys and 68 girls) over to Rev. John Seys, the United States agent there, before proceeding to Norfolk with the prize.[3][4][5]
